The Beginning of Knowledge
Proverbs: Pilgrim Wisdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Tonight we begin Proverbs...
In an age of YouTube sages and TikTok philosophers...
In an age of morality-dictating politicians...
In an age in which people cannot tell you what a woman is or what a man is...
In an age when everyone does what is right in their own eyes...
We are in desperate need of wisdom!
And so we turn to Proverbs.
We turn to God’s Word.
We do not turn to the world...
We do not turn to social media...
We do not turn to politicians...
We come to God’s Word and we seek a heart of wisdom.
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
Proverbs is one of the books of the Bible that would be classified as wisdom literature.
Parts of the Psalms would also fall into that genre.
Job and Ecclesiastes would as well.
In some sense we would say the Song of Solomon is Wisdom literature.
Proverbs is the most practical book of the Wisdom books—maybe the most practical book in the whole Bible.
Derek Kidner said that Proverbs is like “the truth in street clothes.”
Meaning, it is truth that you would use in every day life
Charles Bridges says it is the most educational book in the Old Testament
And the education is one you can use in your life right away
The Proverbs that make up the book tend to come in two forms.
There are short, pithy, terse statements that poetically express truth
Then there are sections with a longer form
And these sections tend to have a tone of admonishment
The tone of a teacher to a student
The tone of a father to a son
The tone of an old man to a young man
Tonight we will begin our series by looking at the Preamble of the first collection of Proverbs. There are seven collections all together, which we will see in just a moment.
Collection I has a preamble (1:1-7), a prologue (1:8-8:36) and an epilogue (9:1-9:18)
The Preamble of Collection 1 is essentially the instructions for the book of Proverbs.
It is like a manual telling you how to use everything that will come after it.
My wife will tell you that I am terrible about reading instructions.
I inherited that from my Grandpa McCormick.
And yet, I must admit that when I do submit myself to the instructions, things go better.
The IKEA table doesn’t wobble when you are done and it takes less time in the long run.
And so tonight, we cannot ignore the instructions.
They will set us up for success as we study this book of wisdom and we see the wisdom that comes from above through God’s Word.
The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
To know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity;
to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth—
Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
and the one who understands obtain guidance,
to understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Tonight we will have three things for us to observe in the first seven verses of Proverbs.
1. The Prince of Proverbs (1:1)
1. The Prince of Proverbs (1:1)
2. The Purposes of Proverbs (1:2-6)
2. The Purposes of Proverbs (1:2-6)
3. THE Principle of Proverbs (1:7)
3. THE Principle of Proverbs (1:7)
THE PRINCE OF PROVERBS (1:1)
THE PRINCE OF PROVERBS (1:1)
When I say “the Prince of Proverbs,” I am referring to the book’s main author.
It is King Solomon.
The prince that inherited his kingly throne from his father David.
We know that Solomon is primary author of Proverbs because his name is etched into the book.
We see it here in verse 1.
You see it again in chapter 10.
The proverbs of Solomon.
A wise son makes a glad father,
but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.
But Solomon is not the only author of the book of Proverbs.
To understand the authorship of the book, you really need to look at each of the seven collections individually.
Collection 1: Clearly they belong to Solomon. We see it here in 1:1.
Collection 2: They also clearly belong to Solomon because 10:1 says it.
Collection 3 and Collection 4:
Collection 3 goes from 22:17-24:22
Collection 4 is very short and goes from 24:23 to 24:34.
These collections are interesting because at least in part, they seem to be borrowed from the wisdom literature of Israel’s Ancient Near Eastern neighbors.
If you compare Solomon’s Thirty Sayings of the Wise in these collections, they are very similar to The Instruction of Amenemope, which came from Egypt.
This is especially true of the first ten.
For example:
Have I not written for you thirty sayings
of counsel and knowledge,
Look to these thirty chapters; they inform, they educate.
Instruction of Amenemope, 30.7
Do not rob the poor, because he is poor,
or crush the afflicted at the gate,
Guard yourself from robbing the poor, from being violent to the weak.
Instruction of Amenemope, 4.4-5
We do not need to feel weird about this. This is more than Solomon copying and pasting swathes of pagan teaching into the Bible. He is not plagiarizing here or even merely citing the Egyptian wisdom literature.
Instead, he is creating an appendix for his sayings of the wise that begin in chapter 10.
And within that appendix, he is taking this wisdom literature of Israel’s neighbors and he is adapting it, and since it is Scripture, we can be confident that he is inspired by the Spirit as he does this work.
What we have is Solomon seeing that in God’s common grace, Egyptian sages had found their way to some golden nuggets of truth.
But he takes those nuggets and he refines them and brings them into conformity with a biblical, Hebrew worldview.
So as he is adapting and appending, the Spirit is inspiring and Holy Scripture is being produced.
This is a far cry from Solomon trying to pass off pagan writing as being inspired by God.
Collection 5: Collection 5 stretched from chapter 25 to chapter 29. These are more sayings from Solomon, but in this case, the men of King Hezekiah, who reigned two centuries after Solomon, are the ones who have copied them.
These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied.
So this is still Solomon, but it is compiled at a later date.
Collection 6: This is just chapter 30 and it is not penned by Solomon, but a court official from an unknown era, named Agur.
Collection 7: Just chapter 31. This is written by an unknown king named Lemuel.
So with this in mind, we can safely say that Solomon’s fingerprints are on five of the seven collections.
This is why we call him the primary author of the Book of Proverbs.
And this is important.
I believe that the authorship of Proverbs gives us major motivation to see to understand the book of Proverbs and put it to use.
We should pay attention to Proverbs because it is written by the wise King of Israel.
We should pay attention to Proverbs because it is written by the wise King of Israel.
All of Proverbs is royal in its authorship.
They are all written by kings or someone in a king’s court.
But the fact that Solomon, the son of David, the King of Israel is the one doing the primary work of writing, should cause us to take notice.
Solomon ruled from 961-922 BC, before the kingdom of Israel split into two.
On a practical level, someone who ruled a kingdom for forty years is going have an immense amount of insight.
And the fact that he did not just rule any kingdom, but the kingdom of God’s chosen people, makes Proverbs even more worthy of our attention.
Solomon grew up under his father David in a wisdom tradition in Israel.
David’s court was a place of wisdom.
He kept mighty men, and prophets and counsellors around him.
Consider just the words of 1 Chronicles 27:32-33
Jonathan, David’s uncle, was a counselor, being a man of understanding and a scribe. He and Jehiel the son of Hachmoni attended the king’s sons. Ahithophel was the king’s counselor, and Hushai the Archite was the king’s friend.
Not only did these men serve David—they attended his sons.
Furthermore, Solomon was right next to his father as one of the greatest kings Israel ever had.
He was not perfect.
But he was a king that surpassed the other kings of the earth both in riches and wisdom.
Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.
His wisdom was not just the result of his upbringing. It was also the result of God’s gift to the king.
In 1 Kings 3, Solomon is described as walking in the statutes of his father David and loving the Lord.
He comes to worship God at Gibeon and as he goes to bed at night, he has a dream and the Lord says to him, “Ask what I shall give you.”
Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
The Bible says it pleased the Lord that Solomon asked this.
And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.
And then, this wisdom is immediately on display in the same chapter—1 Kings 3...
You have the scene with the two prostitutes. Both had given birth and live in the same place.
During the night, one of them rolled over onto her baby and tragically the baby died.
So she goes and switches the baby out with the living baby of the other woman.
This leads to an argument over who is the mother of the living child and who is the mother of the deceased child.
They are going back and forth, until Solomon wisely makes a shocking decision.
He says they should cut the baby in half and give each woman a part of the child.
The woman who is the actual mother cries out in horror and says, “No—let the other woman have the child. I would rather her have the baby than the baby die.”
And in that moment, Solomon knew who the real mother was.
So when we think of Solomon, we think of a man who on one hand, was providentially raised in a house of wisdom as the son of David.
On the other hand, when we think of Solomon, we think of a man who was supernaturally endowed with wisdom by God.
You can see why he is an appropriate message for God’s proverbial wisdom.
All in all, Solomon is described as a man who wrote thousands of proverbs and songs:
He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.
Solomon did not just write about God and how to honor Him in our wise living.
He apparently wrote and sang of everything under the sun—including plants and animals.
And just about everyone under the sun, wanted to hear what he had to say.
But the fact that Solomon is the primary author is not even the primary reason that we should heed the Book of Proverbs.
We should pay attention to Proverbs because it is the breathed out Word of God.
We should pay attention to Proverbs because it is the breathed out Word of God.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
These verses are true of the entire canon of Scripture, but as Paul wrote them to Timothy, he was particularly speaking about the Old Testament.
Meaning—he was talking about Proverbs.
It is awesome to be able to read the Proverbs of Solomon and we rejoice that God used him as his instrument, but the number one reason we should submit ourselves under the teaching of Proverbs is this: The book of Proverbs are the very words of the living God.
THE PURPOSES OF PROVERBS (v. 2-6)
THE PURPOSES OF PROVERBS (v. 2-6)
So now we know the author—the Prince of Proverbs.
But what about the purposes of Proverbs?
What is the book for? What do we do with it? What will we gain from it?
We see six purposes in verses 2-6.
A. To know wisdom and instruction (v. 2)
A. To know wisdom and instruction (v. 2)
WISDOM = The skill of living
The Hebrew word that translates to wisdom could just as easily translate to skill and that lets us know that wisdom truly is the skill of living.
Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise … There is no fool so great as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.
Charles Spurgeon
Lots of people can learn, but how many actually apply what they learn?
Lots of people can gain knowledge, but there is a way to live in which they can just be a knowledgeable fool.
True wisdom is obtaining knowledge and then using it in your life, resulting in righteous living that honors God and benefits your neighbor
But wisdom is hard to obtain—otherwise, everyone would have it.
This is why Solomon says that the Proverbs are not just here for you to know wisdom, but also to know INSTRUCTION.
Synonyms for instruction would be discipline or training.
It is a word that lets us know that getting wisdom isn’t easy.
It takes work.
Even in the case of Solomon, before he asked God for wisdom and received it, he had already grown in wisdom in his father’s house through years of receiving instruction on how to use knowledge rightly.
When we think of instruction, we should think of the student who diligently trains themselves in their field in order to be an expert.
We should think of the athlete who relentless heeds their coach’s words and works hard to create new habits for greater performance
We should think of the someone practicing martial arts, gaining a mental strength by living under intense physical discipline.
B. To understand words of insight (v. 2)
B. To understand words of insight (v. 2)
INSIGHT = understanding and discernment.
It is the ability to see clearly.
Proverbs will lead us to be able to have clearer vision and to be able to see right from wrong.
But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
When we become Christians, we need the pure milk of the Word.
We are learning the basic building blocks of our new Scriptural worldview, as those who have been made alive by the Holy Spirit, redeemed by Christ and reconciled to the Father.
But as we are nourished by the Word, we should be growing and maturing and moving on to solid food.
And as this happens, we will grow in insight.
We will have our power of discernment trained, in order to be able to distinguish good from evil.
Have you experienced this?
Have you matured under the nourishment of the Word of Christ?
Have you moved to solid food, growing as a theologian and growing as a worshipper.
Growing as a neighbor and growing as an evangelist?
And do you have the power of discernment, helping you to steer clear of the sin which so easily entangles and instead to focus on good and honorable things that bring glory to God?
If you answer YES and saying, “Pastor, I am a growing, discerning Christian, thanks to God’s Word.”
Praise the Lord—press on in these Proverbs and you will grow even more.
If your answer is NO—I don’t feel I have matured much and I am spiritually sputtering, you have come to the right place.
Proverbs is here to snatch you up and fill your heart and mind with the wisdom of God.
C. To receive instruction in wise dealing (v. 3)
C. To receive instruction in wise dealing (v. 3)
In many ways, this third purpose is an expansion of the first one that we saw in verse 2.
The difference is that we don’t just hear about wise dealing—we see the substance of it.
The substance of wise dealing is righteousness, justice and equity.
Righteousness here = Governing one’s self rightly or living rightly
And not just any sort rightness, but that which is right in God’s eyes
Plenty of people do what is right in their own eyes. That is the opposite of wisdom, as we will see when we get to v. 7.
Believers should be wanting to do that which God deems as right
We should do right things toward God and for God
Justice = Right judgments
The picture of injustice that we see in Proverbs, helps us know what justice is
A false balance is an abomination to the Lord,
but a just weight is his delight.
When you would come to buy in the marketplace, your purchase would be weighed on a scale and there would be weights and measure on one side of the scale and your food on the other.
Scandalous merchants would lie to the customer and say there was more on the weights and measures side than there actually was, in order to give up less product and get more money.
The Lord hates a false a balance. And that is because a false balance lacks justice.
If righteousness is doing what is right in God’s eyes, justice is doing what is right in God’s eyes in how you deal with your neighbor, specifically
Equity = Fairness
This is a word that is very close to justice. They are brother and sister.
If we are doing right in how we deal with our neighbors, then we will be fair in how we deal with our neighbors.
Meaning, we will treat everyone without partiality
Black or White or Brown, male or female, rich or poor, old or young—we will not withhold fairness from anyone in how we live.
We should love our neighbors as our selves and that is the case no matter who they are
Equity is level living.
Proverbs is here to instruct you in these things.
Proverbs is here to help you grow in wisdom—living righteously, justly and fairly.
For it is truly wise dealing to live in these ways.
By the way—I know our culture has tried to hi-jack some of these words, like justice and equity.
That is another sermon.
But I will simply say, “We should not abandon Bible words because our culture bastardizes them.”
We should just learn their true meaning and shout it out with our mouths and with our lives.
D. To give prudence to the simple; knowledge and discretion to the youth (v. 4)
D. To give prudence to the simple; knowledge and discretion to the youth (v. 4)
When Solomon speak of PRUDENCE to the SIMPLE, he is talking about shrewdness for the untaught.
One time, when I was younger, I heard someone refer to my mother as a shrewd woman and I was ready to drop gloves.
You keep Deborah Howard’s name out of your rotten mouth!
When I first heard it, I thought they were saying she resembled a rat!
What I found out is that being shrewd is usually a compliment.
It means someone has sound judgment. It means they are astute.
And Solomon wants to teach this sort of astuteness to the simple of Israel.
Simple does not refer to some sort of mental hindrance, but of a general naivety.
It speaks to those who are impressionable.
It is natural for Solomon to roll right into talking about KNOWLEDGE and DISCRETION for the YOUTH of Israel.
Often, young people are the simple ones that Solomon is describing.
This is not always the case, but we can say that children and teenagers are generally more impressionable, for better or for worse, than those who have grown into adulthood.
Solomon wants to capitalize on these naive years, where the minds of the young are simple and can be shaped like soft clay.
He knows well that once men and women have lived some years under the sun, the sun can often harden the clay and make them difficult to teach.
The KNOWLEDGE that Solomon wants to give is not just any knowledge.
It is the knowledge that begins with the fear of the Lord, as v. 7 refers to.
And the DISCRETION that Solomon wants to instill in them is not just any sort of discretion.
It isn’t just about money or how they dress or how they speak.
Instead, it is a spiritual discretion.
This sort of discretion in the Hebrew world had to do with the ability to devise and make plans, while never forgetting The Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Discretion is the skill of making responsible choices in a systematic fashion.
A life of discretion is a life ordered by what the Lord has spoken and commanded and invited us into.
In one sense, Solomon wants this for his own children. He wants this for the son that he speaks to in v. 8:
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
But in another sense, the purposes of Proverbs fan out beyond Solomon’s own home and into the entirety of Israel itself.
He wants ALL of the next generation of Israel to gain the sort of wisdom that Proverbs offers.
It appears Solomon intended to pass his wisdom to Israel’s youths by putting his proverbs in the mouth of godly parents, even as Moses disseminated the Law in the home.
Bruce Waltke
Waltke is saying that in the same way Moses gave the Law to Israelite parents to instill in their kids, so that they would not depart from it, Solomon is giving his wisdom so the youths of Israel would not depart from it.
Gary Brady says the same thing a little differently.
He says that Solomon wanted to put diamonds in the pockets of parents and ultimately the children of Israel.
A small diamond can be worth thousands up thousands.
These small Proverbs are the same way—except they are of benefit to the souls of the simple in a way an expensive rock never could be
And the fact that v. 4 says the Proverbs have purposes for the simple lets us know that anyone who comes humble and ready to learn will benefit.
Here is Gary Brady again:
Heavenly Wisdom: Proverbs Simply Explained 4. For Giving Prudence to the Simple, Knowledge and Discretion to the Young (1:4–5)
At the entrance to Plato’s school, we are told, there was a notice which said, ‘Let no one who is not a geometrician enter.’ Over the entrance to Solomon’s school we read, ‘Let the simple, ignorant, foolish and immature come in.’
E. Increase learning and see guidance obtained (v. 5)
E. Increase learning and see guidance obtained (v. 5)
Verse 5 is a reminder that no one can approach Proverbs with an attitude of “I don’t need this. I have made it already.”
Even those who are already wise must hear and increase in the learning.
LEARNING: This is a synonym for understanding
And for the one who understands and increases in learning, Proverbs is here to help them obtain GUIDANCE.
Guidance means direction. It can even mean steering.
If we want to use the analogy of driving, Proverbs doesn’t just teach you how to use the car and doesn’t just teach you the rules of the road. It is there to keep you going in the right direction, so that you arrive at your destination.
Plenty learn, but still get lost.
Proverbs is here to give you an sort of understanding that leads to crossing the finish line and not going off course.
It would not be an overstatement to say that God’s Proverbs are here to get you through life and get you to heaven.
F. To understand a proverb, a saying and the words of the wise and their riddles (v. 6)
F. To understand a proverb, a saying and the words of the wise and their riddles (v. 6)
Most people avoid hard topics, hard questions and hard sayings.
They avoid hard topics because the subject matter makes them uncomfortable.
Things like death and lust and injustice and the meaning of life.
They avoid hard questions because they don’t have answers.
And they avoid hard questions because they lack the knowledge to answer them.
Proverbs is here to get your mind sharp for subject matter such as this.
It is here to help you sort through the proverbs, sayings, words of the wise and the riddles of life, and it is here to give you the answers that God wants you to have.
The answers you NEED if you are going to live wisely.
THE PRINCIPLE OF PROVERBS (v. 7)
THE PRINCIPLE OF PROVERBS (v. 7)
So we have see the Prince of Proverbs—Solomon—the primary signature on the book.
We have see the Purposes of Proverbs in v. 2-6.
And now we finish tonight with THE Principle of Proverbs.
Not just A principle of Proverbs, but THE principle of Proverbs.
This is the foundational principle that undergirds the entire book—all 31 chapters.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Bruce Waltke says that “what the alphabet is to reading, what notes are to music, what numerals are to mathematics, the fear of I AM is to gaining wisdom and instruction.”
Meaning, you will never have the wisdom spoken about in v. 2-6, if you do not fear the Lord.
I said this preamble of Collection 1 is like an instruction book, right?
Well if you put an appliance together, but never plug it into a power source, it won’t work.
Similarly, you can read Proverbs over and over, but if you don’t fear God, you won’t be wise.
Fearing God is where wisdom begins.
This is a principle that is also included in the Psalms.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever!
And this is a principle repeated in the Proverbs.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Moreover, it is repeated by Solomon in his old age at the end of Ecclesiastes:
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
But what does it mean to fear the Lord?
Is it a pitiful fear where you live in trepidation that God will crush you at any moment?
Is it a superstitious fear, where God must get His tip of the cap so that everything will go well with you?
No—we would say that both of these brands of fear fall short of the fear of the Lord spoken of in v. 7.
I believe Charles Bridges helps us greatly with his definition:
The fear of Yahweh is that affectionate reverence, by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father’s law.
Charles Bridges
Like a son of a good father in a home, the servant of the Lord should revere their heavenly Father, but it is a reverence that is soaked with affection.
It is a fear that recognizes His authority, but it is also a fear that is well aware of His grace.
His authority compels us to obey. His grace compels us to love Him who first loved us as we do it.
Solomon says that fools despise wisdom and instruction.
As Charles Spurgeon said, a person may no things, but if they miss the key principle of Proverbs and they do not affectionately revere God with a humble posture and a humble obedience, then they are just a knowledgeable fool.
Their foolishness has nothing to do with their intellectual prowess or their ability to retain information.
Their foolishness is a moral foolishness.
They are fixed in their own opinion and think their own opinion will not fail them.
They buck the moral order that says, “The creation must submit to the Creator,” and they say, “I am my own person. I will do what I want.”
And in the process of living this way, they expose themselves as those who despise the skill of living wisely and the discipline of learning to live wisely.
The initial purpose states in v. 2 is spurned by the one who does not fear the Lord in v. 7.
CHRIST OUR WISDOM
CHRIST OUR WISDOM
And as we close tonight, we must stop and see Christ in this text.
He is certainly there.
First of all, as Christ, the Messiah is foretold in Isaiah 11, He is spoken of as One who is wise and One who fears the Lord and delights to do so:
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
The Messiah is the living embodiment of the sort of wisdom and instruction that Proverbs 1 is teaching.
After Jesus is born and he is growing up, Luke says this about Him:
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
In these ways, Jesus is even greater than Solomon.
If you read about Solomon’s life, he often transgressed his own proverbial wisdom by trying to find satisfaction and solutions outside of God’s will and God’s way.
For example, right after Solomon is lauded for his riches and wisdom in 1 Kings 10, this is said about him in 1 Kings 11:6-7
So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.
The same wise and worshipful Solomon who dedicated the temple fell for the ruse of idolatry in the high places—bowing down to false gods that he learned from the many foreign women he loved.
This is why Matthew 12:42
The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
Christ is the better Solomon—the better Son that sits on David’s throne—who doesn’t just tell us about wisdom. He is wisdom.
Paul told the Corinthians that the Jews see the crucified Jesus as stumbling block and the Greeks find Him to be a joke, but to us, He is the wisdom and power of God.
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Any Jew or Gentile who has put their faith in Christ finds the perfect power and perfect wisdom of God in Him.
To the Colossians, Paul said this:
that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
All of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are perfectly in Him.
So what this means is that if we are going to truly fear God and find wisdom, then we must pour our reverent affection out on Christ as His servants.
There is no other way.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and fearing God begins with bowing the knee to His Son.
Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
To serve the Lord with fear is to rejoice with trembling before the Son.
If you do not bow the knee to the Son, you will be a fool headed for death under the anger and wrath of God.
But if you do reverently fear God’s Son, you will be called Blessed as you take refuge in Him.
Are you affectionately devoted to Jesus tonight?
Do you rejoice and tremble before Him like a child before a wonderful Father?
Do you humble yourself before the Son and kiss His ring with love in your heart?
This is where wisdom begins. This is where wisdom is found.
Without it, Proverbs will never be unlocked for you.